Business, tourism, pandas: SF Mayor London Breed shares agenda ahead of China trip

SAN FRANCISCO (KGO) -- San Francisco Mayor London Breed is flying to China this weekend for a weeklong visit. President Xi Jinping extended the invitation during last year's APEC summit.

San Francisco Mayor London Breed made an appearance at the Chinatown Night Market on Friday ahead departing for a weeklong trip to China this weekend.

"I'm most excited about going to China and bringing back pandas," said Mayor Breed. "I am like, fingers crossed. I want to see a panda in person in China, too."

But, Breed's trip is about a lot more than bringing pandas to the San Francisco Zoo.

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"I'm also excited about what this means for our relationship between San Francisco and China and what the future holds," said Breed.

The mayor is hoping to drum up business for the city and will be traveling with Asian business and community leaders to several cities including Beijing and Shanghai.

"Making sure that we're making a connection to businesses to make investments in San Francisco. We're going to be meeting with airlines to talk about more direct flights," said Breed.

She's also going to meet with several universities to talk about campus partnerships. "We're definitely going to be talking about exchange programs as well as satellite campuses - everything's on the table," explained the mayor.

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And from business owners to lawmakers, people at the night market are getting behind the mayor's visit.

"Having awareness of San Francisco especially having more international tourists for our city is very helpful," Karen Wong with the Harbor View Restaurant.

"Very exciting, especially you know Chinatown, San Francisco, we do have a lot of Asian, a lot of people from China, lot of people from China, Asia - it's good for her to go there and visit and I know she's also trying to get a panda," said Lily Lo, president of BeChinatown.

San Francisco's relationship with China and with East Asia and South Asia is incredibly important and so we want to make sure that we have close connections," said State Senator Scott Wiener, who was also at the market Friday.

He said despite significant political disagreements with the government of China, Breed's trip is still important. "The people of China are so deeply connected to the people of San Francisco and we need to keep those cultural ties strong," said Wiener.

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